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(HONOLULU)
— A federal judge in Hawaii on Thursday expanded the list of family
relationships needed by people seeking new visas from six mostly Muslim
countries to …
(HONOLULU)
— In another setback for President Donald Trump, a federal judge in
Hawaii has further weakened his already diluted travel ban by vastly
expanding the list of family relationships with U.S. citizens that visa
applicants can use to get into the U.S.
The
ruling is the latest piece of pushback in the fierce fight set off by
the ban Trump first attempted in January. It will culminate with
arguments in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in October.
The
current rules aren't so much an outright ban as a tightening of
already-tough visa policies affecting citizens from six Muslim-majority
countries: Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen. People from
those countries who already have visas will be allowed into the country.
Only narrow categories of people, including those with relatives named
in Thursday's ruling, will be considered for new visas.
U.S.
District Judge Derrick Watson on Thursday ordered the government not to
enforce the ban on grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law,
sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of people in
the United States.
"Common
sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to
include grandparents," Watson said in his ruling. "Indeed grandparents
are the epitome of close family members."
Watson
also ruled that the government may not exclude refugees who have formal
assurance and promise of placement services from a resettlement agency
in the U.S.
The
U.S. Supreme Court, which last month allowed a scaled-back version of
the ban to go into effect before it hears the case in October, exempted
visa applicants from the ban if they can prove a "bona fide"
relationship with a U.S. citizen or entity.
The
Trump administration defined "bona fide" relationship as those who had a
parent, spouse, fiance, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or
sibling already in the U.S.
The
case came back to Watson when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled that he had the authority to interpret the Supreme Court's order
and block any violation of it.
Watson's
Thursday ruling broadened the definition of what counts as a "bona
fide" relationship to include grandparents and the rest of the wider
list of relatives.
Hawaii
Attorney General Douglas S. Chin, who represents the state as the
plaintiff in the case said the court made clear "that the U.S.
government may not ignore the scope of the partial travel an as it sees
fit."
"Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough," Chin said in a statement.
The
Supreme Court ruled that workers who accepted jobs from American
companies, students who enrolled at a U.S. university or lecturers
invited to address a U.S. audience would also be exempt.
A relationship created for purposes of avoiding the travel ban would not be acceptable, the justices said.
Trump
proposed a blanket ban on Muslims during his campaign, but limited it
to a handful of countries when he issued his initial travel ban in
January, promoting it as a necessary tool for national security and
fighting terrorism.
It set off massive protests at airports around the country and immediately sparked a sprawling, ongoing legal fight.
Courts
blocked that first ban as well as a second the Trump administration had
retooled, until the Supreme Court partially reinstated it at the end of
June.
It's
unclear how significantly the new rules have affected or will affect
travel. In most of the countries singled out, few people have the means
for leisure travel. Those that do already face intensive screenings
before being issued visas.
___
Associated Press Writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this story from Los Angeles.
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